The Life of the Servant
Luke 23:31-43

Today we are celebrating moving into this building 10 years ago.  It is important to celebrate these important moments in the life of the parish and there have been many more moments to celebrate in the 42 years that the parish has existed, and to recognize a great many people who have been involved in the life of the parish - too many to even mention by name.  In the building of this church you would have to mention the former rector John McKay, members of the parish council and the building committee that did all the necessary preparations, the ladies group who raise money over years so that we had enough to begin to build and for a "state of the art" kitchen.  And in fact the whole congregation needs to be recognized -  when we came down to the decision to build, we had a congregational meeting. There was one motion made to build the church according to the plan that had been prepared - everyone present accepted the motion .  No one opposed - so it passed unanimously. We all left. It was the shortest church meeting that I had ever attended. Many of us went out for lunch. That's the way Anglican's celebrate.  They eat.  They don't say, "till we meet again" they say "Till we eat again" For many Anglicans the pot luck supper is the eighth sacrament of the church.  However, whether we are to eat or not to eat.,  it important to celebrate these moments.

It is a time to celebrate significant events in the life of our faith community, but I think that it is also important at this time at the kind of individual lives that are nurtured in the faith community.

It is significant to do this on the day we celebrate the on this day,  the final Sunday of Pentecost known as the Reign of Christ. What we see in the Gospel today as we Christ's reign is a picture of Jesus on the cross.  The authorities are putting him to death.  His way of life was a threat to their authority. His way of life was an audit on their way of life. They had to get rid of the auditor. But even here was praying for their forgiveness and reaching out to the criminals who were also crucified with him. His whole life was a lived for others. He was always reaching out to others with Love, healing, compassion and forgiveness. He was always crossing the barriers that kept people apart: barriers built on gender, economic barriers, barriers that kept people on the outside (like the woman with an issue of blood that was outlawed from the temple, and lepers on the fringe of society, religious barriers like those who had authority and the rest treated like pawns in their game of life. His whole life was all about  servant hood -serving the need of other.

We, as members of faith community to exercise that kind of life - the life of the servant.  That is our greatness

Martin Luther King Jr. preached a sermon on the new norm of greatness on February 4, 1968. He said:

      Jesus gave us a new norm of greatness. If you want to be important, wonderful. If you want to be recognized, wonderful. If you want to be great, wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you will be your servant . That is your new definition of greatness. And this morning the thing that I like about it is that by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everyone can be great. Because everyone can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You don't have to know Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't need to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.

      King stated at another time:

      An individual has not started living until he or she can rise above the narrow confines of their individual concerns tao the broader concerns of humanity

      Everone must decide whether to walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.  This is the judgement - life's most pertsistent question is "What are we doing for others"

Jesus refused the crown that Satan offered him in the temptations in the wilderness. But he reigns nevertheless, because again and again he is crowned in the hearts of those who believe in him and follow him. That inward coronation takes place when we take on his life - the life lived for others, the life of the servant. (George Buttrick mentioned in a sermon preached in the First Presbyterian Church on Madison Avenue. N.Y, that this inward coronation takes place "among confession, tears and great laughter". Frederick Buechner was in the congregation that day and when he heard the phrase "great laughter", he for some reason was greatly moved and said in one of his books The Alphabet of Grace,  "the great wall of China crumbled and Atlantis rose out of the sea and on Madison Avenue, at 73rd street, tear leapt from my eyes as though I had been struck acrosss the face)

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To live in service for others It is a different kind of life than what we face in many ways in the society in which we live.  I have always been intrigued by Marcus Borg's definition of the call to repentance in his book, The Heart of Christianity, rediscovering a life of faith, "To go beyond the mind that we have been given and acquired by the culture in which we live " -  which is so much related to self, ego concerns, recognition , status. We still live in a "ME" generation.  To repent is to  go beyond the mind shaped by that  culture to the mind that you have "in Christ . That is our challenge today. 

We are so bound up in consumerism and material things as if they will bring us the ultimate happiness. I always liked that story of the man who was in love with a woman he had gone together with for some time.  He darling I love you.  I want to marry you. I don't have a lot of money.  I don't have yacht or convertible like Jerome Green. But I want to spend the rest of my life with you.  She answers, "I love you too!.... But tell me a little bit more about this Jerome Green.

Even our children are affected by this attitude.  There was an article around the Christmas season a few years ago. I think it was around the American Thanksgiving. The article mentions that in some places it was hard to hire people to be Santa Claus in department stores because they were getting so many kicks in the shins by kids who were disappointed that they didn't get exactly what they wanted the year before.

We also live with a desire for status and power, greatness, recognition  and importance which motivates and becomes the most important thing, at the expense of everything else. Everyone wants to be noticed - its a natural desire.  Look at little children if they are skating or swimming., they are shouting "Look at me.  Mamma look at me. Watch me" .  We do the same thing as adults. We don't go around shouting "Look at me" , "everyone look at me" but we do it with the cars we drive , with the clothes we wear, with the positions we hold and the titles that we crave. Of all the passions that lurk in the hearts of humans, the desire for status and power is one of the greatest.

People love titles because they often bring with them a certain kind of status. We have lived with a lot of titles in human history. There have been court titles like King, Emperor, Czar, Sultan. Also, there are titles like Duke, Earl, and Count. There are religious titles like Pope, Bishop, Vicar, Reverend, Monsignor, Archdeacon, Dean, Rabbi, Pastor. There are academic titles, and letters that people put after their names, BA, MA, PHD etc. There are business titles like Chairman of the board, CEO. We could go on and on I'm sure with all the titles there are, and how people desire them, and how many people get upset if they do not get the title that they want, or if their titles are overlooked, or if they are not recognized in some way.

      Years ago I was a student minister in northern Saskatchewan, and I remember attending a deanery meeting in which the clergy elected the rural dean. The person who thought he should be elected wasn't. He was visibly angry. When it came to the end of the meeting, he broke into a long extempore prayer. The ended the prayer something like this, "O Lord, we've had thirty years of evangelical ministry in this deanery, if it's about to go down the drain, Lord, just cancel the whole issue." I can't imagine that anyone would want the title of Rural Dean but it obviously was important for him. I came to the realization very quickly as to how important titles were for some people in the church.

Titles are alright, and positions that we hold are fine that is if they are used for the greatest benefit for all - not as a way of Lording over others, putting others down, even destroying others for our own glory.  There is a responsibility with them. In the faith community there is responsibility for anyone who hold any position( whether it is lay of clergy) it is to serve others in the best possible way. When it's not and only for self- glorification it becomes a problem.

When we take communion and take bread and wine we say that we are taking on Christ body and his blood. In other words, we are taking on his life - his way of life.  We are his body in the world.  We are his life in the world. That is the most important thing. Mother Theresa commenting on Matthew 25 says:

       Our lives are judged by, how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done.

      Our lives are judged by "I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless and you took me in."

      Hungry not only for bread-- but hungry for love
      Naked not only for clothing -- but naked of human respect and dignity
      Homeless not only for want of a room of bricks -- but homeless because of rejection.

      This is Christ in distressing surprise.

The greatest testimony that we can  give  is that we through the Grace of God have served humanity like Christ, that we have given our lives like Christ, that we have loved as Christ. Do we live for that testimony or do we get caught up in the desire for status, and titles, and the exercise of power as control over others many times at the expense of others?

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Tony Campola, a Baptist preacher and sociologist has a wonderful story about the pastor in his home church:

      He said every year they would have a home-coming service for all those young people that had gone off to colleges, universities, and trade schools, or were working at some job in other places. They would be all invited back and this old pastor would have them in front of him for the sermon. One sermon Tony particularly remembers. The pastor began by saying to these young people in that style that the black southern preachers are noted for, "Children, you are all going to die, sometime, may be not right away, maybe a long time from now, but one of these days everyone will gather for a service in the church, then they will go to the grave side and bury you, and then they will all come back to the church hall and they will have coffee, and tea, and refreshments of all kinds and they will all sit around and eat potato salad. "Now, Children, when you were born, you alone were crying, and everyone else was happy. When you die, will you alone be happy , when everyone else is crying.? The answer depends on whether you have lived to get titles or whether you have lived for the testimony.

      Then he went into this poetic rip, that kind of poetic rip that is really special. He went through the bible talking about people who had the titles , contrasted to those who had the testimonies. He rhythmically preached his sermon, each line stronger that the one before: Pharaoh may have had the title, but Moses had the testimony! Nebuchadnezzar may have had the title, but Daniel had the testimony! Queen Jezebel may have had the title, but Elijah had the testimony! He went one and one citing on one hand biblical characters who had the prestige of titles and status and power, and on the other the people of God whose lives were a testimony of loving service to their Lord. He said, "Herod may have had the title but John the Baptist had the testimony!" The people after every refrain would shout Amen or Praise the Lord. ( We don't do that so much in Anglican Churches. Sometimes we nod our approval. People in this congregation of which I speak would shout praises to God and even applaud during in the sermon or at the end of the sermon.) He got to the climax of his message shouting by time. MY CHILDREN, PILATE MAY HAVE HAD THE TITLE! There was a long pause that seemed like eternity, BUT I AM HERE TO STAND BEFORE YOU AND SAY MY JESUS HAD THE TESTIMONY.

      (Tony Campolo from his book Who Changed the Price Tags?)

My friends, at this time when we celebrate the life of our faith community, will we live for power, control, status ,importance and all that titles represent or we continue living as a testimony to loving service in Christ?

Will we live for the title or for the testimony?

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